As mac continues its work on redeveloping the building at Cannon Hill Park, we are still dedicated to make art happen. One of our current projects, Amplifying the Map, will be hosting free workshops for writers over the weekend of 10 and 11 October, whilst we are working with new theatre companies to develop their projects through The Bite Size Festival of New Work, a collaboration with China Plate and Warwick Arts Centre.
In the meantime, there are some more events we'd like to tell you about - The Birmingham Book Festival and our long-time collaborators Stan's Cafe with their family participation project Giant Steps @ A E Harris building, in the Jewellery Quarter, this weekend.
Free Writers' Workshops
Calling All Writers! Get your voice heard! Are you a writer? Do you want to get involved with mac’s Amplifying The Map project?
Following creative writing workshops, and a series of Walking & Talking events, Charlotte Goodwin and Kate Chapman are holding free writers workshops on Saturday 10th October 10am - 12 noon and Sunday 11th October 2- 4pm. Meet at Garden Tea Rooms, Cannon Hill Park (near Russell Road car park), the workshop will include an activity in the park and a writing session in the Nature Centre classroom.
Come and help us to uncover the fictional voices within the park. Your creative mission will be to write a short piece inspired by one of the bridges in Cannon Hill Park, these pieces will go forward for selection to be recorded & included in the final audio map which will be launched at the re-opening of mac in 2010.
Amplifying The Map is a chance to rediscover familiar places and see them in a new light. Over the next 12 months, before, during and after the opening of the refurbished mac building, an ever-growing network of people will be walking, talking and recording each other. All of these recordings will feed into an audio map – a web of downloadable audio tracks focusing on different locations in a mile radius of Cannon Hill Park.
Bite-Size Treats
The Bite-Size 2009/10 Festival of New Work
Produced by China Plate
Commissioned by mac and Warwick Arts Centre.
Bite-Size is a daylong festival of new work by the freshest, most exciting, home-grown talent from around the West Midlands, which first took place in 2008. The second festival will take place on 6 March 2010 at Warwick Arts Centre.
A scratch night, First-Bite 2009, on 12th November, will provide a platform for new work in progress from theatre makers based in the West Midlands. A maximum of eight participating companies will present a performed pitch on 12th October to the Bite-Size partners: China Plate, WAC and mac. From these extracts of work in development, two will be commissioned to complete their piece for Bite-Size in 2010. The two selected companies will each receive a £3000 commission (from mac and Warwick Arts Centre) including two supported development weeks either side of Christmas 2009. This mentored development process will offer the companies both artistic and producing support that will ensure the best chance of the work developing to the highest quality.
Birmingham Book Festival Highlights
Tickets are now on sale for one of Birmingham’s largest festivals, the Birmingham Book Festival which takes place throughout October. Now in its tenth year, the Festival features writers, poets and performers and numerous others who share a love of writing. Many names will be familiar, but there will also be writers which many other Festivals overlook: the new, the challenging and the gloriously undiscovered.
Set up to encourage the city of Birmingham to engage with words - written, read or otherwise, the Festival has evolved into a literature-focused arts organisation which recognises the value of participatory activity, inspirational thinking and creative writing.
There are many opportunities to get involved from workshops for those interested in developing their writing, to seminars giving the chance to learn more about particular writers. Events are made complete by audience members asking questions and joining in discussions, and we actively encourage this.
Highlights this year include Nick Hornby & Lynn Barber, Brian Keenan, Lindsey Davis, John Boyne & Janette Jenkins, Karen Armstrong, A L Kennedy, Sadie Jones & Kate Pullinger, Kate Mosse’s Giant Reading Group, seminars on the work of writers new and old, a family writing workshop, poetry surgeries and a challenging keynote address from United Nations Global 500 Award winner George Monbiot.
Events and workshops will be taking place at various venues across the city from 6 – 29 October.
A Giant Step for Stan's Cafe
Giant Steps is a theatre adventure for families. Set out in vinyl symbols on the floor @ A E Harris (Stan’s Cafe’s Jewellery Quarter base) are instructions for a performance of Jack and the Beanstalk (with extra bits), waiting for you to puzzle them out and act the show yourselves.
Turn up at any time with any number of people and give it a go. Younger children (3+) will love following the paths of brightly coloured vinyl footprints which encourage them to run, jump, skip and hop whilst pretending to be a variety of characters. Older children and adults will enjoy using the symbols to solve puzzles and work out exactly how the performance should run. Remember you are your own audience so you can change your casting, rehearse and repeat bits as you wish. Who knows, you may even start to make things up.
Giant Steps is the fourth edition of Stan’s Cafe’s Steps Series and was inspired by how much children loved following the steps in previous adult editions at mac and Warwick Arts Centre. Here shoe sizes and stride lengths are as child friendly as the story. There are roles for adults and older children so everyone should have something gripping to do.
Please do not wear your best clothes to Giant Steps as they may become dirty.
Please also note Giant Steps is designed as a participatory eventengaging parents/carers with their children. Children must not be left unattended.
Saturday 26th & Sunday 27th September
and Saturday 3rd & Sunday 4th October
Opening times: Saturday 10am – 5pm and Sunday 11am – 5pm
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